Thursday, March 23, 2017

Child Abuse Affects Every Demographic

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, where we can bring
awareness to the many families in our community that are working towards
having healthy relationships. The struggles that every family faces vary by
circumstance, and there is no big book on how to parent your child.

Child abuse is such a
heavy term, and many people don't know what it truly encompasses. It includes
physical, emotional, and verbal abuse, and neglect. Most often, people are
not intentionally trying to harm their children, but they may not know that
hitting is physical abuse, or maybe they had never seen a healthy
relationship with their parents or family and they are following what they
learned.

Tahoe SAFE Alliance staff, school staff, child care providers,
law enforcement, health care providers, and many more people are mandated to
report any stories or witnessing of child abuse to CPS. Once a report is
made, we as reporters have no control over what happens next. Often, people
are scared to disclose or to consider what might happen with involvement of
CPS. I spend a lot of time explaining to families what a response from CPS
might look like, and that their focus is on safety and that they can help the
family with safety planning and parenting skills.

At Tahoe SAFE Alliance, our services are voluntary. When a
family engages in services, an amazing community response happens. We all
work together to help them understand healthy relationships and healthy
family responses. Any time Tahoe SAFE Alliance is working with another
agency, we get consent from the person to share their information and work
collaboratively; it is entirely their decision. We provide education to a
family or individual about healthy relationships, the effects of domestic
violence on kids, and will have informal conversations about coping and
parenting skills.

We also provide
individual therapy to children and survivors of domestic violence, legal and
educational advocacy, and help coordinate and make referrals, and we offer
many more services to survivors of domestic violence. Child abuse affects
every demographic. What each of us can do is model healthy behaviors, ask for
help if we feel we need it, and report any abuse we see or hear about.
All of it builds resilience in our kids and our community.